Plastic - Page 12

The project involves the development of a process to deposit high conductivity, very thin metal tracks onto glass and plastic substrates. The process, which is seen as an alternative to conventional inkjet printing methods, involves the use of lasers to expose selected material.

Flexible displays are expected to require a technology such as this for the formation of the TFT backplane, and the process under development would be applicable to plasma (PDP) and LCD displays and even organic photovoltaics as well as PLEDs.

OLEDs and paper-like display technology are rapidly leading to new opportunities in the display industry according to a new report from NanoMarkets. The report predicts that combined sales of OLED displays and paper-like displays will reach $10.2 billion by 2011 and then go on to reach $14.7 billion by 2013.

Researchers at GE Plastics have detailed a plastic-substrate system that they claim will lead to OLED (organic-light-emitting-diode)-based displays that are more flexible, lighter, more durable, and less costly to build than those based on glass substrates.

The system combines a high-temperature Lexan polycarbonate film with a transparent coating that protects the display from oxygen and moisture. The high clarity and high temperature resistance of the Lexan film enable the construction of a 125-micron-thick substrate that can withstand the heat involved in OLED fabrication and still allow optimal light transmission, according to the company.
In addition, the system should be amenable to high-volume-manufacturing processes that will drive down cost.

GE Global Research is presenting details on its successful development of a substrate system for flexible OLEDs at the Flexible Displays & Microelectronics Conference, Feb. 6-9 in Phoenix, Ariz. The system features a developmental high-temperature Lexan polycarbonate (PC) film from GE - Plastics combined with a transparent, ultra-high-barrier coating to help protect the OLED device against oxygen and moisture.

This research, jointly funded by the U.S. Display Consortium (USDC) and GE, is designed to address the critical need for plastic substrates that can enable cost-effective, lightweight, flexible organic displays. Min Yan, GE materials scientist, will give a presentation on the new substrate system, which is currently being produced in batch mode and will ultimately be moved to a roll-to-roll process for cost efficiency. In addition, GE - Plastics is featuring a variety of plastic films for electrical/electronic display applications during the exhibition.

The market for inks, substrates and other materials used in printable electronics is expected to reach $1.9 billion by 2010 rising to $8.9 billion in 2013, according to a new report from NanoMarkets.

The report provides a thorough analysis of market opportunities available in printable electronics firms for a wide range of materials including nano metallic silver and polymer inks, as well other a wide variety of other inks made from metals, organic materials and standard semiconductors.

Plastic Logic announced today that it has developed the world's largest flexible organic active matrix display. The display consists of a flexible, high resolution, printed active-matrix backplane driving an electronic paper frontplane from US-based E Ink Corporation.

The display will be shown at the 12th International Displays Workshop in Takamatsu, Japan from December 6/9. Dr Seamus Burns, Plastic Logic's Group Leader for Displays, will give a presentation describing the new display in the Sunport Hall Takamatsu Main Hall on Wednesday 7 December 2005 at 09.50. The displays are 10" diagonal SVGA (600 by 800) with 100ppi resolution and 4 levels of greyscale. The thickness of the display when laminated with E-Ink Imaging Film(TM) is less than 0.4mm. The backplane substrate is made from low temperature PET supplied by DuPont Teijin Films which is more flexible and easier to handle than alternatives such as thin glass or steel foil.

Using plastic instead of glass substrates enables panel manufacturers to create bendable, flexible LCDs for mobile and consumer electronics applications. Samsung claims it has created the largest flexible display to date: The 7-inch prototype achieves VGA resolution.

On the performance side, the display 640 x 480 pixel resolution (VGA) at 114 ppi, which is in line with other types of bendable displays. The aperture ratio of the device is rated at 40 percent, the brightness at 100 nits and the color saturation at 60 percent. Samsung claims that the specs are sufficient to make plastic substrates a viable alternative to glass substrates even for digital TVs.
Flexibility is considered to be the next major step for LCD technology. Used already in Japan in the advertising industry, bendable screens are typically based on OLED variants. For example, Fujitsu recently announced an OLED-based "electronic paper," that includes non-volatile image memory, which can store and display a static color image without power supply.

Universal Display Furthers 'Flexible OLED Initiative' and Expands Prototype Capacity with Full-Color OLED Deposition System for OLED Displays on Plastic, Metallic Foil, and Glass Substrates.

UDC today announced the successful installation and start-up of a novel full-color OLED deposition system at Universal Display's technology development center in Ewing, New Jersey. Designed and built by Tokki Corporation, a leading supplier of OLED manufacturing equipment, working with Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation, a premier Japanese trading company, and using novel features designed by Tokki and Universal Display, the ELVES020C OLED Deposition System can produce OLED displays on both rigid glass and flexible substrates (e.g. metallic foil, and plastic).

This new system is the latest step in Universal Display's program to develop a broad array of technologies for conformable and flexible, full-color, high-resolution OLED displays. Universal Display was recently awarded a new $1.7 million Federal contract to develop flexible OLED display prototypes, bringing the Company's overall funded flexible OLED initiative to $6 million total.

Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) and Add-Vision Inc (AVI), a pioneering developer of technology for low information content displays, have announced a business collaboration in which CDT will give AVI a paid-up license to certain CDT IP for specialized low resolution display applications. CDT will also join the existing private equity investors in a new round of funding to allow AVI to develop the technology more rapidly. In return for the license and equity investment, CDT will acquire a very substantial minority position in AVI.

The Add-Vision approach, developed over the last ten years, allows simple PLED displays and backlights to be fabricated by fast screen printing on plastic substrates without the need for expensive clean room facilities. As a result, the cost of display production can be kept lower, while maximizing throughput volumes.